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mukki - I love tiki drinks so I will have to try this one. It looks great!

A classic Martinez with the ratios from PDT: 1.5 oz each of Hayman's old tom gin and Dolin sweet vermouth, 0.25 maraschino, bitters (I used Angostura, the books calls for Boker's), twist (I substituted clementine for orange). Very enjoyable.

So I have been thumbing through my recently arrived copy of the PDT Cocktail Book the last few days in anticipation of making a few of the many drinks listed (Have been battling a cold so not much cocktail-ing occuring at the moment).

I noticed more than few seem to use Deep Mountain Grade B Maple Syrup. Do I need to go out and track down a Grade B syrup? My understanding is the grades reflect the color as much as anything. I have lots of real maple syrup (not likely to find the specific Deep Mountain brand here) but most of it is Grade A (probably medium but not sure at the moment). Deep Mountain uses the Vermont grades which apparently are a bit more dense (slightly more sugar).

But in addition to being darker it seems to imply that Grade B also imparts more maple flavor.

So I suppose I need to go out and find a Grade B syrup (Vermont grade or otherwise) to best approximate the intended drink? Or can I use my scandalous Grade A syrup?

Edit: on further review I see on page 27 it notes that Grade A Dark Amber will do in a pinch. Odds are I don't have that either...

Edited by tanstaafl2, 23 February 2012 - 03:58 PM.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. ~Mark Twain

Some people are like a Slinky. They are not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs...~tanstaafl2

Grade B Maple has a deeper, darker Maple flavor in addition to being darker in color. More like Maple Molasses if you will. It's not hard to understand why they're specifying it but you won't ruin a drink using a Grade A.

Personally, I never understood why Grade B isn't more popular. It's the jam.

Turns out that although it is a Canadian sourced maple syrup it is listed as US Grade A Dark Amber rather than using Canadian grades (I guess because it is sold here in the US?) so I suppose it will do in a pinch.

In the meantime I will look around for a locally available Grade B syrup to try just out of curiosity.

4 drinks called for it and I hadn't even gotten past the Betula!

An ingredient index would have been a nice addition. Of course that is the case with most cocktail books, at least to me.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. ~Mark Twain

Some people are like a Slinky. They are not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs...~tanstaafl2

Maple grades date from with the best maple syrup has as little maple flavor as possible, imitating neutral cane sugar. I like grade B, too. It has the advantage of getting more maple flavor into the cocktail without adding so much sweetness.

I don't think it's a byproduct, but I also (after reading some more) found out it's not any more expensive to produce. There just appears to be a lot less of it produced.

I would bet a significant majority of maple syrup consumers aren't even aware of Grade B, leading to low demand, answered by low production, vicious circle. It would certainly qualify as a specialty item here in Texas.

Grade B isn't as prevalent as A, but it's not hard to find. When I lived in Houston (late 90s), it was available at all the major grocery stores. Here in Atlanta it's the same story: of the three or four brands on the shelf, at least one of them will be B.

Grade B isn't as prevalent as A, but it's not hard to find. When I lived in Houston (late 90s), it was available at all the major grocery stores. Here in Atlanta it's the same story: of the three or four brands on the shelf, at least one of them will be B.

I need better grocers. I only seem to see more than one brand/type of maple at the ritzier places.

Grade B isn't as prevalent as A, but it's not hard to find. When I lived in Houston (late 90s), it was available at all the major grocery stores. Here in Atlanta it's the same story: of the three or four brands on the shelf, at least one of them will be B.

I need better grocers. I only seem to see more than one brand/type of maple at the ritzier places.

Was planning to make a pass by Whole Foods here in Atlanta to see if they have it. But if it is fairly available I might look in the Publix or Kroger first to see. Don't recall a Grade B but I never really looked that close before. Usually just bought the least expensive pure maple syrup I could find. Even then it isn't exactly cheap!

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. ~Mark Twain

Some people are like a Slinky. They are not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs...~tanstaafl2

I have fond childhood memories of maple syrup. First, my mom would sterilize glass jars -- the kind with a wire bale holding the glass lid on, with a rubber gasket. We'd take them to the sugar shack. There a horse team would pull a sled through the woods, with a tin tank in the sled. They would empty each tin bucket from the tree. The sap from the tank would go into a big enclosed boiling tank, fired by cord wood. The guy would take the jars and fill them with boiling syrup from a tap. We would also get some maple cream and maple candy. I remember the billows of steam and the smell of a nice campfire.

The jars would go in the "fruit cellar" in the basement. They often formed a little mold on top, which we'd scrape off before use. The supply would last the year.

In later years, plastic tubes replaced the buckets and sled, and gas replaced the firewood. It wasn't the same.

I don't think it's a byproduct, but I also (after reading some more) found out it's not any more expensive to produce. There just appears to be a lot less of it produced.

I think it may be a "time of the year" thing rather than a "production method" thing.

I don't know if it's either. The grade appears to be based on the translucency of the finished syrup.

But it does look like the darker syrups are produced later in the season...

As the season extends, the sap thins out and grows watery. More of it must be boiled down to yield a syrup of equal sweetness. The last of the sap may yield only a sixtieth of its weight in syrup. Concentrating the sugar also concentrates all the other substances in the sap, making late-season syrup also darker, thicker, and more flavorful.

For mine I made the Rhum Club, a twist on the Pegu Club. I used La Favorite rhum agricole blanc (the book calls for Banks 5 Island rum), Clement Creole Shrubb, lime juice, Angostura bitters and Angostura orange bitters, simple.

They were both very nice (and completely different). If I had to choose one I would pick the Rack & Rye. Too bad I am almost out of Batavia Arrack!

An ingredient index would have been a nice addition. Of course that is the case with most cocktail books, at least to me.

You can use Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" feature to look for specific ingredients. There appears to be a glitch, where Amazon doesn't always pull up the right pages. But each search provide a list of page numbers on the left-hand column, so you can look up the recipes in the physical book.

At the moment, I'm working through some of the recipes that require Dubonnet, since I picked up a bottle last week. The PDT Opera cocktail is quite nice. I've never much liked this drink before, since I don't think the standard combo of Dubonnet and maraschino works well together. In PDT, they substitute Mandarin Napoleon for the maraschino, which they say is close to the original "creme de mandarine."

In general, I've liked (or loved) every drink I've tried from the PDT book. A few have been too hot for me, but otherwise no complaints. I'm particularly impressed with how great some of the PDT takes on the classics are. I've always enjoyed Rusty Nails, for example, as a bit of a guilty pleasure. But the PDT version (2 oz Famous Grouse and .75 Drambuie) is good enough that I wouldn't be embarrassed to serve it to friends.

Just got the book and think it's fantastic: enjoying its wonderful design, loving the extra sections (on bar design especially), and, of course, making some terrific drinks.

The PDT gang always seemed to nail just the right spirit for a given drink, and part of what I'll enjoy is trying my hand at matching what I have and can get against what's preferred by the team. For example, right now I'm enjoying a Brown Bomber made with 2 oz Four Roses Small Batch (in for Dickel #12), 3/4 oz Cocchi Americano (in for Lillet blanc), and 1/2 oz Suze: an outstanding drink. I first made it with Henry McKenna, a very rye-forward bourbon, and that was very good indeed. However, subbing in the softer, more vanilla-y Four Roses brings out the sweetness necessary to nail the balance (especially with the additional bitterness of the Cocchi, sharper than Lillet blanc) and allow the Suze to shine in the long finish. I've never had the Dickel #12, but reading up on various tasting notes that emphasize the caramel and vanilla, well, I think that the FRSM is a spot-on substitute.

I've found the fast easy searching of Cocktail ebooks so useful, that I bought ebook versions of ones I already had the hardcover in and now buy new ones ebook only.

Regarding an index for the book, pretty soon EatYourBooks should have finished indexing the book, so searching by ingredient will be a breeze.

Tonight we had the Astoria Bianco, a Martini variation with white vermouth.

2.5 oz gin (Tanqueray was specified, I used Beefeater)1 oz white vermouth (M&R was specified, I used Dolin)2 dashes orange bitters (instead of PDT's house orange bitters, I used 1 dash of Regan's and 1 dash of Angostura)Orange twist

Very good. I had a very similar cocktail a few weeks ago, the Astoria Vecchio, which is really the same thing except that the gin is genever.